LAWYERS have challenged the government to provide safe drinking water to the country’s citizens or face legal action as access to potable water is a basic human right.
MOSES MATENGA
The warning followed President Robert Mugabe’s bitter complaint over the safety of drinking water in the country’s cities. Mugabe recently admitted the government’s failure to provide potable water, raising fears of another cholera outbreak that left 4 000 people dead in 2008.
An emergency Cabinet committee has already been set to address the water crisis.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said it was compiling information on the safety of water across the country’s cities with a view to taking legal action.
“ZLHR is now collecting information with the aim of approaching the courts in order to seek legal redress for acts of omission by relevant government departments,” ZLHR said in a statement yesterday.
“Investigations must be made into culpability for failure to supply clean water to the affected communities and those responsible must be made accountable forthwith.”
According to Zimbabwe’s Constitution, citizens have a right to clean, potable water and the failure by government to provide that was violation of the rights of the people.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
However, in the country’s major cities, water has become scarce with Harare failing to provide the precious liquid to millions of residents within Greater Harare encompassing Chitungwiza, Norton, Ruwa and Epworth. Harare City Council last year secured a $144 million loan from China to refurbish the obsolete Morton Jaffray Waterworks.
Harare supplies over 400 megalitres against demand of 900 megalitres a day resulting in most suburbs going for months without water.
The council blames the water shortages on leakages caused by the obsolete pipes among other problems.
Concerns have also been raised on pollution of water sources that feed into Lake Chivero resulting in residents drinking contaminated water. Due to the seriousness of the water challenges, most residents depend on unreliable and contaminated water sources, exposing themselves to waterborne diseases.
The local authority currently pumps 45 000 megalitres of water per day, which was just below half of the city’s daily requirement.
The move taken by the lawyers also followed a High Court ruling by Justice Chinembiri Bhunu which outlawed water disconnections by council following an application by Harare lawyer Farai Mushoriwa.
Justice Bhunu blasted Section 8 of the Water By-law Statutory Instrument 164 of 1913 which empowered local authorities to cut off water supplies arbitrarily in the absence of a court order.
The Combined Harare Residents’ Association said the ruling confirmed the letter and spirit of the new Constitution which affirmed that water was a human right.
